


The House of Lord Jeager

by Feneris



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, Noble Eren, Slave Armin, Slave Mikasa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feneris/pseuds/Feneris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reading is one of the greatest pleasures Armin knows. It is also his greatest secret.</p>
<p>Literacy is a privileged reserved for the rich and the free. </p>
<p>And Armin in neither of those.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The House of Lord Jeager

**Author's Note:**

> Originally a fill for the SnK Kink Meme.  
> While this one didn't quiet fit the original prompt, I liked how it turned out. Has a bit of a problem with the verb tenses near the end that I am still not sure how to sort out. By no means one of my better works. 
> 
> Either way I hope it at least provides some enjoyment and I of course would value any critique on this.

Reading is the greatest pleasure Armin knows. It is also one of his greatest secrets. Literacy is a privilege reserved for the free and the powerful, and Armin is neither of those. He has no idea how his grandfather first learned this forbidden knowledge, but some of his most treasured memories are of the late nights in the library with the old man, being taught how to unravel the mysteries of letters and words. A small bit of defiance, both to Lord Jeager, and the small mark burned into both of their wrists.

It is to his great relief then, that Eren does not care about any of that.

Lord Jeager's nephew does not make friends easily, and Armin is rather flattered that's he's one of them. He's the only one actually. For whatever reason Eren has decided a lowly slave boy makes a better companion that the dozens of nobles' sons he could be befriending. Because of it however, both Dr. Jeager and Mrs. Carla cover for him whenever he sneaks off to read. It is also the reason why Lord Jeager constantly wonders why his far-from-scholarly nephew likes being in the library so much.

\---

Mikasa enters the household suddenly and mysteriously. Small, strange, and exotic, with the mark on her wrist still fresh and inflamed. The only explanation given is that she is there to help keep an eye on Eren.

Rumors fly. Some say she is the last of the orientals. Some that she's a kidnapped princess from a land beyond the walls. Most simply think she's there to be a concubine for Eren when he's older.

Armin doesn't believe any of it. Dr. Jeager and Mrs. Carla are not the type of people who would buy a concubine for their son, and he highly doubts that the notoriously cheap Lord Jeager would spend what was undoubtedly a lot of money on a nephew he doesn't even like.

What Armin has noticed however, is that Lord Jeager hasn't spoken a word to his brother's family since Mikasa arrived. Nor, has the Grandmaster of the Slaver's Guild been paying his weekly visits to the household.

Something happened, but Armin doesn't ask what. He doesn't dare ask why Mikasa is always wearing one of Eren's scarves, nor why she does any of her duties that relate to Eren with a single minded intensity that scares some of the younger slaves.

Eren however, is thrilled to have another friend, and any friend of Eren's is by extension a friend of Armin's. As the days turn into months, she quickly becomes one of the few people who know his secret, as well as one of the few he can trust with it.

\---

Its barely a year later when word finally reaches the Inner City that Wall Maria has been breached, and all the land between Maria and Rose had been lost to the titans.

The news goes off like a bombshell among the nobles. Wild speculation spreads like wildfire. Horror stories from the surviving refugees are repeated over tea by frightened ladies. Many fear that Wall Rose will be attacked any day now, and there is a mad preacher wandering the streets urging people to repent their sins, for the end of humanity is upon them.

However, as the months pass, and the expected attack on Wall Rose does not come, things gradually die down. Soon, all that is heard about the fall of the Wall is the occasional grumble about rising prices, or the odd Nationalist who loudly proclaims that the military should get its act together and retake Wall Maria.

For Eren however, the news doesn't die. He becomes obsessed with killing titans, and loudly declares to anyone who will listen that he is going to join the Scouting Legion, retake Wall Maria, and exterminate the Titans. Most just shake their heads and remark that he'll grow out of it.

It's not until Eren nearly kills himself trying out a set of homemade 3DMG (Basically a bunch of belts, and a length of rope with a gardening trowel attached to it) and has his bloodied body dragged into the house by Armin and Mikasa that people start to realize he's serious.

\---

Dr. Jeager's disappearance comes completely out of the blue, and leaves the household reeling. Dr. Jeager merely walked out the door and never returned.

Armin is the first to discover the burning study and raise the alarm. Mikasa is the first to find Eren lying on his bed completely unresponsive, and the one who literally throws him over her shoulder and carries him out the door.

The study is completely destroyed. Whatever it was Dr. Jeager wanted to keep hidden, its now nothing more than a pile of ash. Eren wakes up a week later. He is as shocked at his father's disappearance as everyone and can recall nothing of the day his father left.

The only clue Eren has is a key to a basement in Shiganshina, deep in titan held territory. The only two souls Eren tells are Armin and Mikasa.

\---

As they grow older, Armin begins to realize something. As strange as it sounds, Eren is just not cut out to be a noble.

Eren can't stand the nobility. The irony of it is not lost of Armin. Eren can't even hide the disgust he feels at the usual petty problems the nobility concerns itself with, let alone pretend to actually care. His dreams are the same as they were when Wall Maria first fell.

Join the Scouting Legion

Retake the Wall

Exterminate the Titans

The more people that tell him that joining the Scouting Legion is below someone like him, the more determined he become to do it. His mind rejects the idleness that is expected and encouraged in someone of his rank. Instead his energies build up, and he ends up lashing out at the world. He picks fights with other noble's boys, he strikes out at the other slaves if they so much as look at Armin or Mikasa the wrong way.

The only reason, Armin knows, that Lord Jeager hasn't kicked both Eren and Mrs. Carla out, is because he doesn't want the scandal that will occur if he throws his brother's widowed wife and son out into the street.

Sometimes, Armin wonders if Eren would actually be happier if their situations were reversed. If Eren would actually be happier as a slave doing manual labor, than as a noble's son expected to do nothing. Armin knows he would certainly be happier if he was able to read as much as he wanted without worrying about being flogged for it.

\---

Its a clear sunny day when Mrs. Carla was walking in the garden and suddenly collapsed.

Neither Eren, Armin or Mikasa hear the news at first. The two of them had been sent out to one of the yards to chop wood, and Eren had gone along to supervise them. In truth Eren, was the one taking out his frustrations on the wood, Mikasa was stacking the chopped sections, and Armin was reading one of Eren's lesson books. Its a book on geography, just the kind of book that gets Armin thinking about what's beyond the wall. He absently rubs the mark on his wrist. Of course, as a slave, he's not exactly going to get a chance to go out and see it.

Its then that they hear the sound of frantic footsteps coming towards them. Armin quickly slipped the book back into Eren's bag, just as one of the house slaves rounds the corner. She freezes at the sight of the wood axe in Eren's hand, before bowing low.

"Forgive me Master Eren, your mother was walking in the gardens this morning when she collapsed suddenly. The doctor has already been sent for."

Eren had already tossed the axe aside and was running for the house, gesturing for Mikasa and Armin to follow him.

\---

The doctor's prognosis was grim. Mrs. Carla was dying, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Eren did not react well. Worry mixed with his usual anger and frustration with toxic results. A week after Mrs. Carla was diagnosed, Eren picked a fight with three boys twice his size, all three the sons of military policemen, one the son of a senior officer. They had promptly beat Eren half to death. Mikasa, had then chased all three of them down and beat the snot out of them.

Lord Jeager had been forced to pay out a number of large bribes in order to keep everything quiet. Mikasa had escaped punishment only because none of the boys were willing to admit they had gotten beat up by a girl half their size.

It wouldn't be the last incident of its kind to happen, nor would those be the last bribe Lord Jeager would have to pay in order to keep Eren's behavior from dirtying his name.

\---

The day Mrs. Carla dies is a cheery midsummer day. They hold the funeral the same day. Armin and Mikasa are chosen to stand by Eren's side as he puts the torch to her pyre and sends her soul to the next world.

Eren stays at the pyre till it burns to ashes, then locks himself in his room, not even letting Mikasa and Armin in. He doesn't come out for dinner, and no one sees hide or hair of him all evening.

It is well past midnight when Mikasa wakes Armin up.

"Eren wants to talk to you. Try not to make any noise."

They find Eren wide awake, pacing back and forth in his room, his mother's jewelry spread out on the bed.

"I'm going to do it," he announces. "I'm going to run off and join the Scouting Legion."

Armin blinks in surprise. Eren had been saying he would do it ever since Wall Maria fell, but to hear him say he was actually going to do it...

Eren turns to look at them, there's an intensity in his eyes they haven't seen before. "Come with me. We can all join the Legion together. You can both be free and we'll be able to go see all those places you've read about. You won't even have to hide the fact you can read. I'm sure the Scouting Legion would protect you if my uncle comes looking!"

Armin very much doubts that. While its not unheard of for escaped slaves to earn their freedom through great acts of valor and skill, Armin knows he is not one of those brave and skilled souls. When Lord Jeager finally tracks down Eren...

Revelation comes in a sudden glorious burst. Lord Jeager would not come looking for Eren. He would gladly pay the cost of replacing two escaped slaves if it meant he would finally be rid of his troublesome nephew. Freedom suddenly stands before him, just waiting for him to reach out and grab it. Everything he wanted to do but couldn't is suddenly and gloriously possible.

Eren looks Armin right in the eyes. "What do you say Armin? You coming?" He doesn't ask about Mikasa. They both know Mikasa would follow him through the gates of hell, even if he ordered her not to.

Armin smiles. "Of course."

\---

Its strangely like the day Dr. Jeager disappeared, Armin thinks as they step out the front door the next morning. No one moves to stop them, there's nothing strange about Eren heading out to play and dragging Armin and Mikasa with him.

They have Mrs. Carla's jewelry squirreled away in their pockets, along with with a couple of books from the library that Armin is sure Lord Jeager won't even notice are gone.

They turn the corner, disappear from sight, and like Dr. Jeager, are never seen by the household again.


End file.
